Ministry of Culture
NCSMs collaborate with Google Arts & Culture for ‘Once upon a Try’: Epic Journeys of Invention and Discovery
Kolkata, March 6, 2019
National Council of Science Museums , an organization under the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India has collaborated with Google Arts & Culture for Once Upon a Try - the largest online exhibition about inventions and discoveries ever curated. The online exhibition was launched today and contains collections, stories and knowledge from over 110 renowned institutions from across 23 countries, highlighting millennia of major breakthroughs and the great minds behind them.
Everybody can now explore more than 400 interactive exhibitions that pay tribute to humanity's greatest leaps in science and technology, and the visionaries that shaped our world, as well as tales of epic fails and happy accidents.
NCSMs contributes six interactive stories that share some key insights into the long and glorious Science and Technology Heritage of India. The f six sections of the exhibition include:
- Historic Beginnings: The Indus Valley Civilization - This interactive exhibit explores various facets of the first Urban Civilization - Indus Valley Civilization like Town Planning , standardization of bricks, food security through granaries, cotton and textiles, metallurgical practices, ceramics, pottery, artistically elegant personal ornaments, agriculture, shipping and navigation.

- Ayurveda: Indian Contributions to Medicine - This interactive exhibit explores the science of the body and mind, which in India had its origin in the healing arts of the Vedic times. This knowledge and practice, called Ayurveda, emerged as a holistic medical science par excellence by about the fifth century BC. The two great classics of Ayurveda, the Caraka  and Susruta Samhita , present a vivid and cogent account of medical knowledge and surgical practices respectively in vogue about 1800 years ago and continue to be used in Ayurveda today.

- Susruta Samhita: Ancient Indian Surgical Knowledge - This interactive exhibit explores the Susruta Samhita, which accords pride of place to surgery. It describes more than 300 hundred different operations, like outstanding feats of ancient Indian surgery related to laparotomy, lithotomy and plastic operations, and 121 surgical instruments  such as tongs, forceps, scalpels, catheters, syringes, speculums, needles, saws, probes, scissors and the like. 
- Rasashala: Ancient Indian Alchemical Lab - The section depicts the ancient Indians’ contributions to the science of alchemy  highlighting the usage of a variety of yantras  for producing mercury and other chemical compounds.

- Itr: Ancient Indian Knowledge of Perfumery - Ancient Indians achieved great technical understanding and technological progress in perfumery, due to considerable use of cosmetics and perfumery for the purpose of worship, sale and sensual enjoyment. Brahatsamhita  of Varahamihira deals with ‘gandhayukti’  in 37 verses. The word ‘sugandhi’, meaning well perfumed, is also used in Rig Veda. Expressions involving the term ‘gandha’ are found in Taitriya Samhita, Maitrayani Samhita, Satapata Brahman and Taitriya Aranyaka. 
- Musical Instruments from the Indian Subcontinent - From ancient times, Indian musicians have developed and performed with traditional and indigenous musical instruments that suited their style. Indians played on a variety of string instruments, wind instruments and percussion instruments since antiquity. Apart from the understanding of acoustics necessary for the fabrication of these instruments, Indians also excelled in selecting appropriate materials for the main body and preparation of the alloys or processing of membranes to be suitably used in these instruments.

Beyond these narratives, Museum views of the National Science Centre, Delhi and Science City, Kolkata, are available for national and global audiences to virtually walk through.
The treasure which was lesser known to the world is now open to all. One has to explore National Council of Science Museums on Google Arts & Culture at: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/national-council-of-science-museums
The same is available in Once Upon a Try on Google Arts & Culture  or using the app on iOS or Android.